For many years, two-dimensional (2D) paper drawings were used for defining master product definitions. Paper communication among members of an Integrated Product Team was a challenge, because of the slowest related to paper communication. For example, a design group would create 2D drawings for defining engineering assemblies. A manufacturing group used the 2D engineering drawings to understand the intents of the design group, develop manufacturing assemblies and build plans, and communicate intents to a tooling group. The tooling group created tools and tool instructions to comply with the build plan. In many cases, multiple variations of a tool were developed in order to comply with different product variations included in a build plan.
Tool operators received the build plan from the manufacturing group and tooling information from the tooling group. Because the build plan was developed before tools were ever created or specified, the tool operators didn't know the specific tool version that was required by just reviewing the build plan. As a result, the tool operators spent a lengthy amount of time reviewing information provided by the tooling group in order to determine the correct tool configuration for the product option and line number.
In light of discrepancies that often occur with current tooling manufacturing systems and methods, it would be desirable to consistently provide tool operators with complete information regarding correct tool configuration for a product option and line number. Thus, there exists an unmet need for a software application program that provides accurate tool information without requiring lengthy and expensive updates to the underlying supporting application program.